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Paul Elliott lives on Belleview Avenue and has constant issues with water drainage on the road and yard. One drain has been plugged up for about a year so the water goes over his driveway and into his yard, which creates mud issues. (Photo: Robert McGraw/Gazette)Buy Photo

“There are times the road is covered by water so badly that people do not see the potholes and have had blown tires due to not being able to see them,” said Elliott, an eight-year resident of the street.

Mayor Luke Feeney acknowledged Tuesday that Belleview Avenue is one example of an area where some storm sewer infrastructure work is needed. There, he said, there's a ditch that has not really been significantly maintained over time and there's no real piping to help the situation. A grant application was recently submitted to the Ohio Department of Transportation in an effort to get needed resources to help address some of the problems.

As the city examines its storm sewer needs, Feeney said a significant part of storm sewer system success involves proper maintenance of retention ponds.

"That's something that people maybe don't even see, it's behind a house or maybe it's part of a development, but it's stuff that does need to be maintained," the mayor said. "Maybe when those get full and haven't been cleared, the immediate effect or the person seeing it is just one family that sees this thing in their backyard that's full of water, but the ripple effect is further downstream."

Creating a plan to deal with stormwater issues in the community was identified earlier this week during a City Council strategic planning session as one of the city's priority issues needing to be addressed over the next one to three years. It joined around a half-dozen other issues included in the plan for the one- to three-year time period, building on a similar number of priorities council members want to follow up on yet this year.

Some of the priorities were ones council would have a direct role in addressing, while with others the board would serve more as an agent to encourage action by the city administration or to monitor the progress of initiatives. Creation of a stormwater plan is one of the priorities that will involve efforts by both council and the administration, with each governmental arm saying they recognize the need to do something about the problem.

"The other day, we had a really bad downpour and I was on Eastern Avenue ... and it was just flooded, all over the road," said Councilwoman Beth Neal.

"And it doesn't do anything for the asphalt, it just gators it all up," Councilman Joel Fleurima added. "That's where I agree something needs to be done proactively because we're putting in a million dollars a year on streets, and if we don't address this stormwater, we're just throwing a million dollars away."

Neal suggested pursuing grant funding would be one possibility for addressing some of the work that needs to be done. Councilwoman Pat Patrick mentioned, however, that some grants have eligibility tied to a municipality's water and sewer rates and with Chillicothe's being on the low end of the scale, the city may be limited in its grant options.

The meeting was the third conducted by the council with the goal of creating a strategic plan to provide something of a roadmap to guide city business in the coming years. During the first two sessions, the board established mission and vision statements, a list of 10 values that include such things as accountability, transparency, community involvement and diversity and inclusiveness, and several goals and corresponding strategies in such areas as financial accountability, infrastructure, cultural heritage, and neighborhoods.

Monday's meeting was the first in which specific priorities were placed into the plan. In placing those priorities, they were grouped into three areas, with those labeled as near-term to be dealt with this year, those in Tier I to be addressed in the one- to three-year term and those in Tier II being longer-range projects.

Several of the near-term items are already underway, such as a city facilities study, getting a new curbside recycling program ready for launch, finding a way to get the Renick Avenue yard waste site cleaned up, increasing the walkability of the community and getting the city's new website online.

The new website had originally been set for launch around the beginning of this year. Its intent is to be a more dynamic tool for residents to not only find information about city operations and departments but also to better interact with officials and conduct certain interactive functions such as paying a bill or making a park shelter reservation.

Several council members Monday expressed concerns that the site was not yet operational.

Besides development of a storm water plan, other Tier I priorities include ensuring a sustainable residential yard waste program, supporting creation of a citywide compost program, offering formal support for the pursuit of World Heritage status for the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, examining sidewalk safety issues, continuing to address nuisance issues and adjust legislation when necessary, reviewing city zoning codes on a regular basis and improving communication between city officials and residents and council and city department leadership.

The only item presently in the Tier II plan involves a long-term look at fire and police stations and substations.

Council members stressed the plan is a fluid one designed to guide council's activity and not necessarily something meant to establish concrete deadlines for accomplishing each item.